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A couple of days ago as I prepared a favorite summertime recipe, I turned the handle on the faucet and nothing came out. I didn't know how long the water would be off. For decades, I'd kept half a gallon of water in a bottle on a shelf, but I'd thrown the bottle away in case the water was past...

Almost 3 years ago I bought an Abound with Tektro HD E350 brakes. The front lever would pull farther than the rear. In the past month I've unclamped brake levers twice to change handlebars. There was no sign of leakage, but now I can pull the front lever all the way to the grip. Without being...

I shortened my 72cm Abound bar to a more traditional 54cm to make it easier to stay in control. Their back sweep of 24 degrees was too much after they were shortened, so rotated them down to reduce it to 10 degrees. That rotation produced anhedral, like the wings of a Hawker Harrier or a C5...

Years ago, I got tennis elbow soon after buying a Radrunner. The pavement around here is bumpy. Each bump causes a sharp deceleration of the bike. You lurch against the bars. When I took my left hand off the bar to signal, I'd lurch against the right bar only, requiring tremendous torque with my...

More than 3 years ago, I got an aftermarket controller for my Radmission. One advantage was that I could have the throttle available while pedaling without PAS. Today I tried PAS on a hill. It cut out for about a third of each cycle. I pulled the left crank arm and removed the sensor. It's...

My Abound worked fine when I shut it down at 8:30 last night. At 8:30 this morning, the motor wouldn't run. The display had no troubleshooting help except to say the battery is at 92%. The speedometer works. The brake light is off unless I pull a lever. There was no response when I substituted...

1965: God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son." Remember the siren? I just bought two! They're marketed as freezer alarms. If an electrical receptacle goes dead, a 9V battery sounds the siren. Brewing coffee one cup at a time was a dead giveaway that I'm a snob, so I switched to instant years ago...

In the 80s I heated with wood. Filing teeth left a burr, which wore quickly. Sharpening was imprecise the chain would rock in the bar groove. I got a Craftsman electric sharpener: a Dremel tool with a stone and guide. A Dremel typically spun at 20-35 thousand rpm. Contact before the stone was...

I read here that an emergency generator can lose its magnetism. I googled. One source said time will demagnetize, but it takes decades. You can do it quickly with an AC field, heat, or hammering. When it comes to generators, one source said you must run an emergency generator every two weeks to...

Twenty months ago this area lost power for 4 days. A neighbor brought in an extension cord from his generator. A gas engine burns a lot of fuel even with no load. He kept it off much of the time. Even then, he and tens of thousands of others spent hours each day searching for an open gas...

I'm critical of my Radrunner, but I remember something I loved about it. With 3.3" tires at the recommended 30 PSI, steering was neutral. That is, it felt the same whether the bike was going straight or turning. When you lean, the front contact patch moves to that side. The drag steers the wheel...

When i got into e-bikes, I noticed how slow and cumbersome it is to stop at a stop sign. This was particularly true for my first two e-bikes. They were single speed, and for safety, their controllers provided little torque from a stop. It was not only inconvenient but dangerous because getting...

Nine years ago I bought a 14 A electric chainsaw. It still cuts fast. A couple of years ago, a neighbor wasn't making headway with his gas saw. The teeth were very dull. I brought mine over. Because of a design flaw, it would leak until the oil tank was empty while sitting on a shelf. So I'd...

I found a rubber lug-nut cap on the street. At 18mm, it fits both my bikes. Amazon has 18mm caps for certain VWs. They're $5 for a box of 20. The one I found sticks out 27mm, while the VW ones stick out only 20mm, which should be plenty for a bike.

A man wrote me an estimate this afternoon. He said my carbon copy was faint and offered me a picture. He sent it from his phone to mine. I asked if he could email it so I'd have it on my Mac. It didn't arrive. I guess he got my email address wrong. How can I email an Android text attachment?

Aventon seems to be going to 36 volts. There must be advantages. Maybe it could prevent users from getting far more than legal power with an aftermarket controller. Maybe a 36 volt battery is easier for a controller to keep equalized. Anyone know why Aventon is reducing voltage?

My Radrunner ( 20 x 3.3” semi knobby) was a big disappointment on snow and ice. It wanted to float on a loose surface. It wouldn’t even steer until I reduced pressure from the mandated 30 psi to 10. At that point, rolling resistance was horrific. This is my third winter with my Abound (20 x...

With my new seat angle, I may not use any motor during an hour's ride. With the controller idle except to power the display, the battery drains faster than expected. With no lights, the battery loses about 1% per hour of riding, or 6.8 Watts. With the head and tail light, it loses about 1.7% per...

Last summer, I'd ridden my Abound daily for 20 months when I removed the center stand to clean and lube. Bolting it back on, I crushed the rear light cable. I e-mailed customer service to ask the price of a new tail light. I got a quick response saying a new headlight, listing for $6, had been...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-09-22/trump-cancels-trail-bike-lane-grants-deemed-hostile-to-cars?utm_campaign=bn&utm_medium=distro&utm_source=yahooUS NHSTA has suddenly changed its tune. A few weeks ago, their website said helmets were the least effective way to reduce fatalities...